Natural aging of expanded shale, clay, and slate (ESCS) amendment with heavy metals in stormwater increases its antibacterial properties: Implications on biofilter design.

Aging is often expected to decrease the pathogen removal capacity of media because of exhaustion of attachment sites by adsorption of co-contaminants and dissolved organics. In contrast, the adsorption of metals naturally present in stormwater during aging could have a positive impact on pathogen removal. To examine the effect of adsorbed metals on pathogen removal, biofilter media amended with expanded clay, shale, and slate (ESCS) aggregates, a lightweight aggregate, were exposed to metals by intermittently injecting natural stormwater spiked with Cu, Pb, and Zn, and the capacity of aged and unaged media to remove Escherichia coli (E. coli), a pathogen indicator, were compared. Metal adsorption on ESCS media decreased their net negative surface charge and altered the surface properties as confirmed by zeta potential measurement and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. These changes increased the E. coli adsorption capacity of aged media compared with unaged media and decreased overall remobilization of attached E. coli during intermittent infiltration of stormwater. A live-dead analysis confirmed that the adsorbed metals inactivated attached E. coli, thereby replenishing the adsorption capacity. Overall, the results confirmed that natural aging of biofilter media with adsorbed metals could indeed have a net positive effect on E. coli removal in biofilters and therefore should be included in the conceptual model predicting long-term removal of pathogens from stormwater containing mixed pollutants.